GENEVA (AP) — The International Swimming Federation says its chief executive has been ordered to testify as a witness in a U.S. criminal investigation into the disqualification of 23 Chinese swimmers during a swimming contest. Failed a doping test They have been cleared to continue competing in 2021.
The news comes just three weeks before the Paris Olympics, where 11 Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a banned heart drug three years ago are due to compete.
Just weeks before China’s swimmers won three gold medals at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the World Anti-Doping Agency did not dispute that Chinese authorities had cited hotel food contamination as a reason to exempt the athletes from suspension.
The decisions, made separately by World Aquatics, were not made public until reported by The New York Times and German broadcaster ARD in April.
The House of Representatives China Committee Department of Justice and FBI On May 21, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the investigation of the alleged doping conspiracy to be conducted under federal law even if the case was conducted outside the United States.
World Aquatics confirmed to The Associated Press on Thursday that executive director Brent Nowicki had been subpoenaed to testify in the investigation.
“World Aquatics can confirm that Executive Director Brent Nowicki has received a witness subpoena from the U.S. government,” the federation said in a statement to The Associated Press. “He has scheduled meetings with the government, which will likely eliminate the need for him to testify before a grand jury.”
World Aquatics did not respond to questions about when or where Nowicki received the subpoena, or say which department is handling the investigation.
“Consistent with our normal practice, the FBI does not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation,” the FBI said in an email response Thursday.
The Chinese swimmer’s case could be the highest-profile yet under a U.S. federal law passed in 2020 in the aftermath of a long-running scandal of Russian government-backed doping in sports.
Twenty-three swimmers tested positive for trimetazidine in January 2021 and were entered into an international anti-doping database a few weeks later, including Zhang Yufei, Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 200m butterfly and 4×200 freestyle relay, and Wang Shun, gold medalist in the men’s 200m medley.
A subsequent investigation by Chinese government authorities reportedly found traces of the substance in the kitchen of the hotel where the team was staying, without explaining how or why the prescription drug, in pill form, got there.
Wada I accepted the theory This allowed the Chinese swimmers to continue competing, and they have since described it as a “relatively simple case of mass contamination”.
The agency has since He defended his response. The Chinese government did not publicize the case, which remained secret in 2021, saying there was no way to independently disprove the theory during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel to China was impossible.
WADA’s lawyers said in April they didn’t have enough evidence to win individual appeals against the 23 athletes before the Tokyo Olympics. Their appeals against the suspensions were set to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, where Nowitzki was a long-time senior adviser before joining World Aquatics in 2021.
“This scandal raises serious legal, ethical and competitive concerns and may constitute a broader state-sponsored strategy by the People’s Republic of China to unfairly compete in the Olympic Games, similar to what Russia has previously done,” the Chinese Communist Party Task Force said in a letter to the Justice Department and FBI.
The incident occurred last month when swimming giant Michael Phelps He said athletes had lost trust in WADA as a global watchdog that seeks to rid sport of cheats.
A Montreal-based WADA official declined an invitation to attend the hearing, saying it would be “inappropriate to become embroiled in a political debate before a U.S. congressional committee about a case in another country, especially while an independent investigation into WADA’s handling of the case is ongoing.”
The review report was commissioned by WADA Former prosecutor It is located in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, home to the International Olympic Committee and the governing bodies of many Olympic sports.
Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, suggested to The Associated Press that the ongoing federal investigation could cause sports officials traveling to the United States to “fear that they may have to answer questions from the FBI about their activities.”
The United States will host the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028. July 24th in Paris The IOC should approve Salt Lake City as the host city for the 2034 Winter Olympics.
The Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, named after the whistleblower who exposed Russian state-sponsored doping, was passed with bipartisan support, and its aim to criminalize doping was widely supported by the global sports community.
but, WADA lobbied What was the risk of overreaching “extraterritorial” jurisdiction to U.S. federal agencies? The IOC also expressed concerns.
Tygart said the Rodchenkov Act was “enacted in 2021 with the support of a wide range of athletes, the sports community and multinational governments because WADA could not be trusted to be a strong, impartial global watchdog to protect clean athletes and fair sport.”
___ Pels reported from Denver, Colorado.
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